


Aftermath

by natnatwood



Category: Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Episode: s07e09 Absolution, Gen, Hurt Jay Halstead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21527002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natnatwood/pseuds/natnatwood
Summary: Episode continuation. One-Shot. Hailey Upton POV.
Relationships: Jay Halstead/Hailey Upton
Comments: 8
Kudos: 131





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have waited for 7 seasons for the kind of whump that we saw happen to Jay. Now that it's happened, I am so anxious to see what happens next. I literally threw this together because I have so many ideas on how this scene would play out. Hopefully ya'll like it and please forgive the typos. I haven't written a story since Mutant X in the early 2000's ;)

Hailey’s head snaps to the side as she hears the gunshot. An unsettling amount of silence follows and she holds her breath.

“Jay? Jay, answer me!”

She secures the unconscious (dead?) man on the ground and can’t seem to care enough to ensure that he doesn’t bleed out. 

Getting up from the floor, she rounds the corner to the stairs gun drawn. 

“Jay, can you hear me?” She all but screams as she starts to make her descent down the stairs. Before she can hit the bottom step, she hears gasping and it turns her blood cold. It sounds like someone who is breathing underwater; a pained and raspy sound. "Jay!?”. Rounding the corner into the basement, she all but freezes at the sight that meets her. 

Gun still pointed in front of her, she immediately notices that there is a man on the ground clearly unconscious, Angela is sprawled out on the floor with a gun within her reach and then there is Jay. 

Jay is gasping heavily. It looks like it is taking everything he has to get enough air and he is clearly losing the battle. Chest heaving, she can’t tell if he’s conscious but she knows for certain he needs help. Now. 

She screams into her radio, “5021 Henry, officer down! I repeat ,officer down. Send an ambulance now!”

She runs until she is right in front of Angela and secures the weapon that was lying on the ground. Angela looks like she is completely out of it at this point and makes no attempt to move from where she is laying, face down. 

Turning back around she sees that Jay is wheezing now, struggling just a little bit less than before to breathe and she can see that his lips are bloodless and borderline blue. There is a gunshot wound in his upper left chest, so near to his heart that her eyes go wide. The hole in his chest is pouring out blood in rivulets and it really hits her that Jay may not make it out of this. The relief she had felt not even 5 minutes ago when she looked into his eyes is shattered and replaced with unadulterated fear. 

“Jay, look at me!” Hand over hand, Hailey puts all of the strength she has into applying pressure on the pulsing wound. Halstead gasps harshly and his good eye dazedly opens. Recognition works into his mind and it looks like he wants to say something; his throat works convulsively but he coughs and gulps down air like a dying fish. Dying. Jay is dying and all Hailey can do is watch. 

Where the hell is that ambulance? The moment she thinks it, Voight bursts through the door with Ruzek right behind him. “Hailey!” His gravelly voice reverberates through the dank, enclosed space. 

Adam drops down beside her and takes over on the pressure while she moves to Jays head. “Jay, stay with me!” His eye is rolling wildly now and she can tell this response is more than just pain. He isn’t getting enough air and panic is setting in. 

His breathing sounds wet and one side of his chest is moving irregularly than the other. Halstead has his mouth wide open as his hands scrabble for purchase on the dirty ground. Blood continues to pour from the wound, no matter how hard Adam is pressing down and she knows he can’t lose much more blood, not to mention he is as pale as she has ever seen him. 

“You’re going to be fine. Jay, can you hear me? You’re going to be fine. I need you to hold on okay?” A litany of reassurances that she truly doesn’t feel flows out of her mouth. Her voice breaks on the last word and she looks up to meet Adam's eyes. Its unsettling she sees there - there is no assurance as he tries to keep Jay's blood in his body and it scares her on a level she never thought she'd feel.

This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. He was fine. 

Rojas screams from the bottom of the stairs, “Down here!” and Upstead almost cries in relief knowing that help is here. 

The paramedics descend on Jay, immediately applying an oxygen mask to his face and starting an IV. Organized chaos is the only thing that she can describe what is happening around her partner and it chills her to the bone. The medics are moving fluidly, carefully giving orders to one another while another set of medics are checking on Angela. 

Angela. She can’t think about that right now, her main focus has to be on Jay. It looks like the oxygen is helping but he is still clearly struggling. 

The paramedics are ready for transport and she moves to help them lift the backboard so they can get him out of here. She wants to fall apart, but she can’t. Not yet. Her partner needs her strength and she knows that she has to do this for him. He needs her. She will deal with her feelings later; all the things that she never got to say because she was too afraid, she will say. Jay needs to hang on so they can get him to the hospital, to his brother. He can do this. They lift the backboard and hurry out. 

FIN


	2. Jay's POV - 7x09

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He can't breathe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After watching the sneak peak, I just had to write a Jay POV of the scene. Only 19 days left but it feels like an eternity. Hope ya'll enjoy.

It feels like a punch to the chest. When Halstead first came down into the basement and saw that Angela had a gun trained on him, his first assumption was that she was anticipating her captors overpowering him and she was scared. 

“It’s over” He says this with all the reassurance that he can muster. After everything that has happened over the past 24 hours, they’re safe. 

The next moment is something that later on, he will have to truly focus on to remember exactly what happened.

There are times in your life where an event will take place and it will be so shocking to your system that your mind goes offline to protect itself. It’s more-so of a defense mechanism of the brain during trauma where all of your bodys resources are being redirected and the only thing that your being can focus on is “stay alive”. It’s something like a fight or flight response but things don’t get hyper-focused, things get immediately murky. 

The last time that Jay was shot, he thankfully had the wherewithal to put on his bulletproof vest. Based on where the bullet had hit the vest after his father died, there was no doubt in his mind that without it, he would be dead. The bruise had blossomed directly where his heart was located and the subsequent pain he encountered in the following days were breath-stealing. 

This time, when Jay gets shot, he doesn’t have a vest. The bullet hits him high on the left side of his chest and it’s a bit of deja vu. He’s thrown backwards into the wall behind him and he immediately gets the wind knocked out of him. 

Legs giving out he falls forward and he ungraciously rolls onto his back. 

_ He can’t breathe.  _

Jay tries to gasp in a breath but he can’t seem to do it. No matter how hard he tries, all that comes in is a thin wisp of air that isn’t enough. He’s writhing on the ground, actively trying not to die, trying to breathe. 

Chest heaving desperately, the pain hits like a sledgehammer and he involuntarily begins groaning. It’s not enough - not nearly enough air and Jay can only open his mouth wide, hungrily trying to get anything that will sustain him. His mind has narrowed to this arduous task of breathing and if he had any sense to focus on anything else, he would find it extremely disconcerting in that breathing shouldn’t be this hard. He shouldn’t have to struggle as much as he is but when you have a bullet in your chest, things get difficult. 

Time skips and Hailey is suddenly in front of him; begging him to stay with her. 

Hailey. 

He wants to reassure her and let her know that everything is okay but he is having the toughest time doing anything but just  _ breathing. _

He is going to die and as Jay looks at the blurry image of Hailey before him, he realizes there is so much he wants to say. He and his partner have come a long way since they were first put together - so much has happened and to know it’s going to end right now is heartbreaking. Jay wants to convey to her how much she has meant to him but the air won’t come and his gaze is going dark. 

If he makes it through this, there will be a conversation to be had - a long drawn out conversation. In the meantime, his eyes drift shut with Hailey being the last thing he sees. 


	3. Ambulance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another missing scene from Hailey's POV again because, I can't help but wonder what happened in that ambulance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peeps I'm STILL not over 7x9 or 7x10 but for different reasons :sigh:  
> I feel happy that there was a little bit of Jay whump but the wait was so long and there should have been more hurt and comfort.

“I’m going with him.”

It was never a question but she feels the need to say it anyway as she brushes past Voight to get over to the other side of the gurney. Hailey hops into the ambulance as they are settling Jay in and within seconds, they are on the move. 

Jay has his good eye open again and it doesn't seem to be able to focus on anything in particular. He is so pale that his freckles stand out in stark contrast against his cheeks and his clenched fists are trembling against his sides. Hailey gets in his line of vision to try to get his attention and sees the little puffs of air fogging up the oxygen mask strapped to his face. 

“Jay, can you hear me? I need you to stay with me, okay? We are almost at the hospital but I need you to hang on.”

“BP is dropping, he’s hypotensive. Pushing a round of epi. We have to get this bleeding under control” The female paramedic all but yells to no one in particular and grabs another piece of gauze to stem the blood bubbling up from Jay’s chest. It just doesn’t seem to ever be enough of the white before it immediately turns red.

“I’ve got it” Hailey takes over the pressure and makes brief eye contact with Grace (she'd skimmed the paramedics name tag). Pushing down on the gauze with as much strength as she can muster. Jay groans low in his throat, wheezing harshly beneath the oxygen mask. 

Grace works feverishly, inserting another IV of medication and examining the monitors displaying Halstead’s rapidly declining vitals. 

All of a sudden Jay’s chest began to heave hard and fast; alarms wailing shortly after. Hailey panics, looking at the monitors then at the person who is literally saving her partners life -- who at this point does not look reassuring at all. Her movements are efficient yet hurried. Hailey still tries to maintain eye contact with Jay but his iris is rolling into the back of his head and if she had thought she was panicked before, she can’t even describe the feeling now. She cards her hand through his hair while her other hand touches his face. 

“Jay, stay.  _ Please. _ ” 

“We’re losing him” Grace yells to the front of the bus at her partner. “We’re almost there! Two minutes.” he calls back. 

Two minutes. She can get him to hang on for two minutes. In that moment of thought, another alarm goes off. Hailey looks back down at his face to realize that there is no longer puffs of air visible through the oxygen mask. 

“He’s not breathing!” Hailey is pushed away from Jays head as his savior begins the process of intubating. 

Jay is lax as she moves his head and pulls down his mouth to the proper position to insert the tube. Swiftly the tube is in and she bags him. Looking up expectantly to Hailey, she asks “I need you to squeeze this bag, once every 3 seconds. Squeeze and release.” She repeats this a few times to get a rhythm going.

“Don’t worry about pressure on the wound at this point, okay?” With that being said, it’s almost like Jay is doing everything he can to be stubborn because in that moment, he flatlines. “Lost his pulse!”. She calls out. 

Graces swiftly passes the bag and begins compressions. Hard, punishing thrusts that bows Jays ribcage relentlessly. 

In all of this, Hailey prays willing to anything/anyone she believes in that Jay survives this. The air is fraught with tension with the siren and Grace’s grunts as she continues another round of compressions.

How did it come to this? This morning her main concern was that she could not get ahold of Jay on the phone and now he is actively dying from a gunshot wound to the chest. 

She can’t do this. Tears hover on the precipice of her lids with only her strong will not allowing them to fall. She has always been good at focusing on what needs to be done so she compartmentalizing in this moment is a task she knows she can do. 

The ambulance jerks to a heavy stop and the male paramedic that was driving is already out of the door and heading to the back. When the doors open, she sees that there are a plethora of doctors and nurses already waiting to take over. They pull out the gurney with a nurse taking over the squeezing of the ambu bag and they race is on to Baghdad leaving Hailey staring at her blood covered hands. 

She wants to throw up. In the span of two minutes, Jay, her partner, her confidant had died. She wants to run after the doctors and nurses to see if his strong heart is once again beating but she can’t move. 

“Hailey”. She hears her name distantly and looks up from the blood, so much blood. 

Maggie is standing in front of her with a look so pitying and sad. It looks like she has been standing there for a while, calling her name because she stares patiently. 

“Hailey, let’s get you cleaned up. Come on, you can use the Doctor’s lounge to wash your hands”. She gently puts a hand on the shaken detectives elbow and leads her to the back room. 

Hailey follows and looks up, making eye contact with Will across the ER desk. He looks distraught but he gives her a slight nod in acknowledgement and turns on his heels jogging around the corner to where she can only assume leads to his brother. A place where she cannot go. 

In that brief moment she knows that Will was trying to convey that he would take over watching out for Jay. That his little brother was now his responsibility now that he was at Chicago Med and he would not let him out of his sight. It was his turn to get him through the next few hours and he would not fail. 

Hailey takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders; putting on her mask she walks into the bathroom off the lounge and cleans up as much of the blood (Jays blood) from her hands. Even after scrubbing with soap, her hands are stained. Putting her hands in her pockets, she passes Maggie with a nod of her own and makes her way to the waiting room. 

The team is there of course, each in their respective seats. She breathes an audible sigh and walks to the seat nearest Vanessa who is staring purposely at the ground. The blonde sits down heavily and waits. 


End file.
